[linux-audio-dev] Some music made with Linux

[David Olofson]

On Friday 20 February 2004 21.27, Paul Winkler wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 20, 2004 at 02:34:54PM -0500, Pete Bessman wrote:
> > At Fri, 20 Feb 2004 18:23:52 +0100,
> >
> > David Olofson wrote:
> > > > Tricky. To get crunchy hard-rock guitar sounds like Pete's
> > > > (nice track pete!), you'll have to realistically emulate
> > > > palm-muting, which I've never heard in a synth. And how would
> > > > you control the amount of muting? Map it to a CC and play a
> > > > slider?
> >
> > Don't think realistic.  Think like a synth.  If I was a synth,
> > how would I play guitar?
>
> if I were a synth, I would not be able to play guitar, lacking
> fingers; but since I am myself, I can play guitar or synth
> depending on what I want ;-)
>
> I guess I misjudged the direction of the conversation.
> I do think it's interesting to think about realistic synth
> emulation of guitar, but not very practical - it's just so thorny.
> Palm-muting is just one of the many tricky issues.
> Think of the variables introduced by common picking techniques:
> at the least you have to consider stiffness of plectrum (or
> finger), force of pluck, and distance from bridge.

How about *recording* it instead of trying to emulate it? That is, 
separate the excitation impulses from the string resonance, and use 
that to drive a plucked string synth.

The next step would be to resynthesize the impulses. Not trying to 
understand them or how they're generated; only replacing the sampled 
audio impulses with something more compact, while still sequencing 
them like percussion sounds or whatever.


> Much more practical, I think, is to do as you suggest:
> invent synth sounds that capture something of the character
> and attitude of a given guitar sound without trying to
> duplicate it sonically.

Yes, that would be the first approach, given that it's really about 
creating something that sounds good. Starting out with emulation 
might be a good way of "inventing" new, interesting synth sounds, 
though.

In fact, I'm more interested in finding expressive synthetic 
alternatives to guitars than I am in accurately emulating guitars, or 
any other instruments for that matter. However, if I can't hear the 
exact sound I want in my head, the best bet is to start with 
something that can at least serve the same purpose as that yet to be 
heard dream sound.

Or I can just hope that I'm lucky and accidentally run into the next 
Holy Grail(TM) of sounds. ;-) (Electric guitar, distorted guitar, 
TB-303 filter sweeps,... what's next?). Even then, the chances are 
probably a lot better when doing something. Doing insane and/or 
generally weird stuff probably improves the odds. :-)


//David Olofson - Programmer, Composer, Open Source Advocate

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